The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-05-05

Indignation go cut to the manufacturers on
the banks Of the Merrimac because they
have closed upP No. Does the indigna-
tion go out toward the employer, who is
out at his country seat? No. 1t comes
on the clerk. He got up the war! He
levied the taxesl He puts up the rentsl Of
course the clerk!
Then great trial comes to clerks in the
fact that they see the parsimonious side of
human nature. You talk about lies be-
hind the counter-there are just as many
lies before the counter Augustine speaks
Of man who advertised that he would,
on certain occasion, tell the people what
was in their hearts. A great crowd assem-
bled and he stepped to the front and said:
81 will tell you what is in your hearts: To
buy cheap and sell dear" Oh, people of
Brooklynl lay not aside your urbanity when
you come into O store. Treat the clerks
like gentlemen and ladies-proving your
self to be gentleman or lady. Remem-
ber that if the prices are high and your
purse is lean, that it is no fault of the
clerks. And if you have q son or q
daughter amid those perplexities Of COM
mercial life, and such one comes home
all worn out, be lenient and know that the
MARTYR at the stake no more certainly
needs the grace of God than our young
people amid the seven times heated ex-
ASPIRATIONS of a clerks life.
Then there are all the trials which come
to clerks from the treatment of incon-
siderate employers There are professed
Christian men in this city who have no
more regard for their clerks than they
have for the scales on which the sugars
are weighed. Aclerk is no more than SO
much store furniture. No consideration
for their rights or their interests. Not
one word of encouragement from eunrise
to sunset, nor from January to December.
But when anything goes wrong-a streak
of dust on the counter or box with the
cover off-thunder showers of scolding.
Men imperious, capricious, cranky toward
their clerks-their whole manner as much
as to say: GAIL the interest | have in you
is to see what can get out of you"
Then there are all the trials Of incompe-
tent wages. Some of you remember when
the war broke out and all the merchan-
disc went up, and merchants were made
mllionaires in six months by the simple
rise in the value of goods. Did the clerk
get the advantage of that rise? Sometimes,
not always. l saw estates gathered in
those times over which the curse of God
has hung ever since. The Cry of under
paid men and women in those stores
reached the Lord of Sabaoth, and the in
dignation of God has been around those
establishments ever since; rumbling In the
carriage wheels, flashing in the chandeliers,
glowing from the crimson upholstery,
laundering in the long roll of the ten pin
alley. Such men build up palaces of mer-
chandise heaven high, but after while a
disaster will come along and will put one
that pillar, and throw itself forward until
down will come the whole structure, crush
ing the worshipers as grapes are mashed in
wine press.
Then there are boys in establishments
who are ruined-in prosperous establish
ments ruined by their lack of compensa-
ton. In how many prosperous stores it
has been for the last twenty years that boys
were given Just enough money to learn
them how to steal! Some we're seized
/ upon by the police. The vast majority of
/ instances were not known. The head of
the firm asked: "Where is George now?"
"Oh, he isn't here any more"
A lad might better starve TO death on a
| blasted heath than take one cent from his
employer. Woe be TO that employer who
unnecessarily puts temptation in boys
| ments in these cities, building marble
palaces, their owners dying worth millions
and millions and millions, who made vast
amount of their estate out of the blood and
muscle and nerve of half paid clerks. Such
men as-well, | will not mention any name.
But mean men who have gathered up
vast estates at the expense of the people
| who we're ground under their heel. ooh, "
| say such merchants, "if you don't like it
| here then 20 and get better place" As
much as to say "Ive got you in my grip,
and | mean to hold you; you can't set any
other place." Oh, what n contrast we see
| between such men and those Christian
| merchants of Brooklyn ana New York who
| to-day are sympathetic with their clerks
when they pay the salary, acting in this
way: "This salary that l give you is not all
my interest in you. You are an immortal
man; you are an immortal woman; l am in
terested in your present and your everlast-
ing welfare; / want you to understand that,
if am little higher up in this store, ! am
beside you in Christian sympathy" Go
back forty years Arthur Tappen's store
in New York--a man whose worst enemies
never questioned his honesty. Every morn
ing he brought all the clerks and the ac-
countants and the weighers into room for
devotion. They sang. They prayed.
They exhorted. On Monday morning the
clerks were asked where they had attended
| church the previous day, and what the SER
mons were about. 1t must have sounded
strangely that voice of praise along the
streets where the devotees of Mammon
were counting their golden beads. You
say Arthur Tappen failed. Yes, he was
| unfortunate, like a great many good men,
l,ao I'LL oh
before he left this world, and know that
he died in the peace of the Gospel, and
that he is before the throne of God to-day-
forever blessed. If that be failing, I wish
that you might all fail There are great
many young men in this city-yea, in this
housewife want word of encouragement
Christian encouragement. One smile of
| good cheer would be worth more to them
| to morrow morning in their places Of busi-
ness than present of $4,000 ten years
hence. Oh, remember the apprehension
and tremor of entering profession. re-
member very we'll the man who greeted me
| in the ecclesiastical court with the tip ends
| of the long fingers of the left hand; and
remember the other man who took my
| hand in both of his and said "God bless
/ you, my brother; you have entered glorl-
! ous profession; be faithful to God and lie
will see you through" Why, feel this
minute the thrill of that Misunderstanding
! though the man who gave me the Christian
! grin has been in Heaven TWENTY-FIVE years
There are men to-day who can look back
l TO forty years ago, when some one said q
kind word to them. Now, old men, pay
( back what you got then. 1t is great art
| for old men to be able to encourage the
+ young. There are many young people
in our own cities who have come from in-
land counties of our State-from the
granite hills of the North, from the savan.
the West. They are here to get their for.
tune. They are in boarding houses, where
! everybody seems to be thinking of himself